There are many industries that must package objects having different sizes for shipment, warehousing, and other operations. There are commercially available carton-producing machines that are capable of producing customized boxes in the size and style needed. Such machines use corrugated cardboard to produce boxes on demand that vary in dimensions typology and quantity.
A side of a typical machine is depicted in FIG. 1A; a top view is shown in FIG. 1B. Required box dimensions are either input manually or determined from a bar code or previously generated list of carton sizes. Based upon this input, fan-fold raw material having a sufficient width is drawn from one of the stations 10 and delivered to a staging area 12. From there, the material is cut and scored at 14 to produce a flat panel that may be folded and glued or stapled to produce a box large enough to fit the object to be packaged. Although supplies 10 reduce waste by providing material of varying width, a more automated dimensioning capability would enhance efficiency and reduce costs.